Pages

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Guest Author: Erec Stebbins

An Invitation to Save the World: READER, a science fiction novelLying on the sands of Greece, I had an idea. It was an idea for a book directed at my teen-aged daughters. The heroine would be seventeen and go on a set of amazing adventures across the universe. She would literally save the world. Sounds fun, right?So, I began “brainstorming.” A character came to life in my mind, spoke words in my head that I put on paper, told a story that became the book READER. And once the story was told, I suddenly had some serious questions I had to ask myself.Here is what “I” wrote in chapter two: “On the cover of this novel is an author's name. He believes this story is full of his ideas, born of his own mind. It's not. I am writing it through him, reaching out, back through what you call Time, shaping his thoughts, convincing him of this reality.”Hey, that’s pretty weird, right?Of course, that my protagonist is claiming that I didn’t write the novel is a cute and fun way to play with ideas, no? Of course, it could never really be the case that my mind was being manipulated from the future in order to tell a story to the past! Right? Right?

The more I thought about it, the more worried I became. How would I truly know if these were my own thoughts? If she had to power to shape minds, as she claims and describes in the story, then how would I know that my ideas did not come from a source outside myself? Those doubts made it important that I consider the tale my story was telling. If it were just some random thoughts of a teenager-to-be of our future, descriptions of her day-to-day life, or future norms and technology, it wouldn’t have so much consequence. I could relax. Move on. Write more books!But that’s not the case with READER.Ambra Dawn claims to be reaching back through time for the most important of reasons: to save humanity. If there is even the slightest chance that this could be true, and not simply some recursive state my brain had spiraled into, I had to take her claim seriously. I especially had to do that because she is asking something of us, something that she claims just might save our world!What is it she’s asking and saying? It took her an entire book to describe, so I can’t do it here. Pick up a copy of READER – hardback, paperback, or the very affordable ebook version – and find out.You just might save the world.READER (Daughter of Time, Book 1)

From the future, a final plea. Out of the past, a last hope.From the author of THE RAGNARÖK CONSPIRACY comes a science fiction adventure unlike any you have ever known. She was a VICTIM: enslaved after her parents' murder. She was made a MONSTER: deformed, modified against her will. She became a MESSIAH: opening the Orbs and leading a galactic rebellion. Share the cosmic quest of seventeen-year-old Ambra Dawn, Reader, and the most unbelievable step in the adventure - will be your own. "Promising newcomer" -Library Journal"A monster new talent" -Allan Leverone, author of The Lonely Mile